Security Systems News - Steve Dixonhttp://securitysystemsnews.com/taxonomy/term/5098
enMonitoring companies foresee benefits from ADT/Protection 1 mergerhttp://securitysystemsnews.com/article/monitoring-companies-foresee-benefits-adt-protection-1-merger
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<div class="field-item even">Five leading monitoring companies share views on megamerger</div>
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<div class="field-item even" property="schema:datePublished dc:date"><span class="date-display-single" property="schema:datePublished dc:date" datatype="xsd:dateTime" content="2016-03-09T00:00:00-05:00">03/09/2016</span></div>
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<div class="field-item even" rel="schema:author dc:creator">Spencer Ives</div>
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<div class="field-item even" property="schema:articleBody content:encoded"> <p>YARMOUTH, Maine—Monitoring companies have an opportunity to attract new business, new dealers and new employees in the wake of <a href="http://www.securitysystemsnews.com/article/apollo-buy-adt-69-billion-combine-protection-1">the planned ADT/Protection 1 merger</a>, according to five leading monitoring companies who spoke to <em>Security Systems News</em>.</p>
<p>“There’s going to be a lot of really good people in this combined company that are not going to have a home in the long run or are going to find that they’re not as happy as they might have been in the past,” John Cerasuolo, ADS Security president and CEO, told SSN. “That’s going to give ADS and other competitors the chance to attract some real talent.”</p>
<p>Mike Bodnar, president of third party central station Security Partners, said the ADT/Protection 1 merger presents an opportunity. “As mergers happen, dealers who are used to a more customized offering from their monitoring center or their wholesale center may be looking once again at options and alternatives because of the sheer size of some of the biggest players,” he said.</p>
<p>The integration of ADT and Protection 1 is “no small task,” Cerasuolo said. When combining such large companies “your attention is going to be, for some period of time, very much focused internally instead of externally. That can’t help but be somewhat of a distraction in their efforts to support their existing customers and go out and earn new ones, ” he said.</p>
<p>Steve Dixon, Vivint’s SVP of customer experience and operations, said he couldn't comment on how this merger would go, but said, “Any time two large companies come together, there are plenty of operational challenges, just figuring out who is going to do what.” </p>
<p>Integrating the monitoring centers among ADT, Protection 1 will be a large task as well, according to Cerasuolo.</p>
<p>ADS has experience acquiring and folding-in companies, <a href="http://www.securitysystemsnews.com/article/ads-buys-safeco-s-accounts">lately at a rate of five or six per year since 2014</a>. “No matter what the scale, whether it’s one customer or a hundred thousand customers, any time you change the monitoring center, you run the risk of disrupting something that that customer has become used to … and there’s a premium on making sure that’s a non-event for the customer,” he said.</p>
<p>“Their objective, as ours is when we do a small transfer, is making sure it is totally transparent and a non-event for the customer,” Cerasuolo said.</p>
<p>Cerasuolo also said that he did not expect this deal to be a deciding factor for ADS or similar companies. “Our success or failure is going to be determined wholly and completely by our ability to serve well our existing customers and earn the business of new ones,” he said.</p>
<p>Dixon said that Vivint isn’t expecting any change as a result of the merger. “For us, it’s really business as usual. We will continue to focus on providing the best service we possibly can.”</p>
<p>Continued focus on their business is the best course of action, some said. “These big guys come and they go, and they split up and they come back together, all the while, people who are focused on their geographic territory or their market niche are able to grow and expand and cater to their customers,” Daniel Oppenheim, VP for Affiliated Monitoring, told SSN.</p>
<p>Bodnar said that the deal represents opportunities for local or regional alarm companies, “There’s an opportunity for them to differentiate [themselves] from such a large operation.”</p>
<p>The deal may make ADT a more formidable competitor, according to Cerasuolo. “When private equity invests that much money in a company, they’re expecting to be able to improve their performance, and an improved competitor is something all of us will have to face in the future,” he said.</p>
<p>From a high level, Cerasuolo views the deal as a “big positive” for the industry. “It points to the strengths and attraction of our industry, which I think is a wonderful thing—that private equity is in general so willing to invest significant sums of money is a great vote of confidence.”</p>
<p>“It’s really nice to see outside investors view our industry as being attractive,” John Doyle, president and CEO of Doyle Security Systems, said.</p>
<p>Bodnar shared a similar thought. “Clearly, the financial folks and the larger players continue to find traction in our industry, both retail and wholesale,” he said.</p> </div>
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<span property="dc:title" content="Monitoring companies foresee benefits from ADT/Protection 1 merger" class="rdf-meta element-hidden"></span>Wed, 09 Mar 2016 20:29:08 +0000Spencer Ives18881 at http://securitysystemsnews.comhttp://securitysystemsnews.com/article/monitoring-companies-foresee-benefits-adt-protection-1-merger#commentsDesign matters at Vivint’s new monitoring centerhttp://securitysystemsnews.com/article/design-matters-vivint-s-new-monitoring-center
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<div class="field-item even">Dixon: Center is built to benefit employees and the bottom line</div>
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<div class="field-item even" property="schema:datePublished dc:date"><span class="date-display-single" property="schema:datePublished dc:date" datatype="xsd:dateTime" content="2015-08-05T00:00:00-04:00">08/05/2015</span></div>
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<div class="field-item even" rel="schema:author dc:creator">Spencer Ives</div>
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<div class="field-item even" property="schema:articleBody content:encoded"> <p>EAGAN, Minn.—Featuring natural light, an expanded cafeteria with free food and a pond where employees can go fishing during breaks, Vivint’s new monitoring center is loaded with employee-pleasing amenities that translate into increased productivity and profits for the company, according to Steve Dixon, Vivint’s VP of customer experience and operations.</p>
<p>“I think we underestimate the impact that natural light has in the workplace,” Dixon told <em>Security Systems News</em>.</p>
<p>Vivint announced Aug. 4 that it had moved its Minnesota monitoring operation to a new facility here. Vivint has had a monitoring center in Minnesota since 2009, when <a href="http://www.securitysystemsnews.com/article/apx-alarm-acquires-central-pro-one-subsidiary" target="_blank">it acquired a central station from Protection 1</a>. It also hired 80 Protection 1 employees at that time.</p>
<p>Vivint learned about the benefits of natural light by happenstance last year. The company’s customer call center, based in Lindon, Utah, had a fire in March 2014, displacing employees to a temporary facility. “There was an abundance of natural light [at the temporary facility], and suddenly, productivity improved. We saw that our customer satisfaction scores were improving.” In addition, the average time of customer services calls decreased, as did employee attrition, while employee attendance increased, Dixon said.</p>
<p><img alt="" class="media-image" height="199" width="300" typeof="foaf:Image" src="http://securitysystemsnews.com/sites/ssn/files/styles/large/public/Cubicles.jpg?itok=mkEPNXwE" />Vivint decided to ensure its new building here included natural light.</p>
<p>In addition to the free cafeteria and fishing pond, the facility has a walking trail, a game room, fitness center, picnic areas and a putting green. Employees also have their choice of free lunch at several nearby restaurants.</p>
<p>The new building incorporates glass doors and glass walls. “I think people being able to interact more with their managers, and feel like there’s just more visibility into what’s going on, adds to a very positive environment for our employees,” Dixon said.</p>
<p>“We have the same number of square feet … but we’ve been very efficient in the build-out, and we’ve gained 50 percent more capacity. So, we can actually expand the call center—expand our monitoring station—and we’ll get several more years of our anticipated growth without necessarily having to go to a new location,” Dixon said. The new location also has space for expansion, he said.</p>
<p>“It will definitely facilitate account growth, and specifically, we’ve been able to expand the number of central station representatives by 50 percent,” said Dixon.</p>
<p>The move took place during a single overnight shift, Dixon said. The monitoring center went offline at the end of an evening shift, moving signal traffic to Vivint’s other monitoring center in Provo, Utah, and the new center was brought online for the next day’s first shift, Dixon said. “We haven’t had a single hiccup in the process.”</p>
<p><img alt="" class="media-image" height="199" width="300" typeof="foaf:Image" src="http://securitysystemsnews.com/sites/ssn/files/styles/large/public/Building%20%281%29.jpg?itok=CjmGanqm" />The new facility was built out to include newer equipment like computers and furniture, which made the move easier, he said.</p>
<p>Todd Pedersen, Vivint’s founder and CEO, <a href="http://www.securitysystemsnews.com/article/vivint-boss-goes-undercover" target="_blank">appeared on CBS reality show “Undercover Boss,”</a> and noticed that workspaces could be better equipped. He announced the new facility on the show. The episode was filmed last fall, and aired Feb. 20.</p>
<p>Dixon said that Vivint started considering a new facility prior to that, in August of 2014.</p>
<p>Construction began in February, and was “effectively done at the end of June, but … we were deliberate in not wanting to move around the Fourth of July.”</p> </div>
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<span property="dc:title" content="Design matters at Vivint’s new monitoring center" class="rdf-meta element-hidden"></span>Wed, 05 Aug 2015 19:03:04 +0000Spencer Ives18484 at http://securitysystemsnews.comhttp://securitysystemsnews.com/article/design-matters-vivint-s-new-monitoring-center#commentsVivint alerts homeowners about scam artistshttp://securitysystemsnews.com/blog/vivint-alerts-homeowners-about-scam-artists
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<div class="field-item even" property="schema:author dc:creator">Amy Canfield</div>
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<div class="field-item even" property="schema:datePublished dc:created"><span class="date-display-single" property="schema:datePublished dc:created" datatype="xsd:dateTime" content="2015-04-29T00:00:00-04:00">04/29/2015</span></div>
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<div class="field-item even" property="schema:articleBody content:encoded"> <p>Say your residential security company has made a huge dent in a particular neighborhood. You’ve got the area covered and all is good, for you and for homeowners.</p>
<p>Then some shifty guy comes around that neighborhood, knocks on your customers’ doors and professes to offer a better deal for their homes’ security than you can provide.</p>
<p>The guy is likely part of a door-to-door scam, and it’s also likely more guys like him will be showing up over the summer months, according to the Better Business Bureau. I read about a spate of this going on recently in Corpus Christie, Texas, but that's not to say Corpus Christie is a unique target of such ploys.</p>
<p>Vivint has a way of letting its customers know to be on the lookout for such scams. It encourages aware customers to contact the company about suspected scams or deceptive sales practices in their neighborhoods. Upon that notification, Vivint will send out an alert to alarm panels owned by customers in the impacted area. The message says that security scams have been reported nearby, and also gives a 24/7 phone number to call to verify a Vivint rep who might legitimately show up at the door.</p>
<p>“At Vivint, we take all possible measures to keep our customers protected. This includes keeping them apprised of what’s going on in and around their homes in real time,” Steve Dixon, VP of customer experience and operations, told me via email.</p>
<p>"The security alert is one of the things Vivint uses, in addition to customer emails and calls, to advise Vivint customers about questionable or deceptive sales practices used by competitor sales representatives in the area," Dixon said.</p>
<p>Good for Vivint, I say, and to all the other resi providers who provide such a service.</p>
<p>Scam artists, beware!</p> </div>
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<span property="dc:title" content="Vivint alerts homeowners about scam artists" class="rdf-meta element-hidden"></span>Wed, 29 Apr 2015 18:52:33 +0000Amy Canfield18300 at http://securitysystemsnews.comhttp://securitysystemsnews.com/blog/vivint-alerts-homeowners-about-scam-artists#commentsVivint wins recognition for its customer servicehttp://securitysystemsnews.com/also-noted/vivint-wins-recognition-its-customer-service
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<div class="field-item even"><span class="date-display-single" property="dc:date" datatype="xsd:dateTime" content="2014-03-13T00:00:00-04:00">03/13/2014</span></div>
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<div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"> <p>PROVO, Utah—Vivint, a home automation services/home security provider based here, has again received recognition for its outstanding customer service department by the People’s Choice Stevie Awards, according to a news release. A two-year consecutive winner, Vivint was presented with a Silver Stevie Award in February for Customer Service Department of the Year in the “other industries” category.<br />The Stevie Awards recognize outstanding performances in the workplace worldwide and are designed to honor organizations of all types and sizes and the people behind them. As part of the eighth annual Stevie Awards for Sales &amp; Customer Service, Vivint was also recognized with silvers in the categories of Customer Service Complaints Team of the Year and e-Commerce Customer Service.<br />“Our customers are our top priority,” Steve Dixon, VP of customer experience and operations at Vivint, said in a prepared statement. “This honor is a reflection of the dedication of our customer care team.”</p> </div>
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<span property="dc:title" content="Vivint wins recognition for its customer service" class="rdf-meta element-hidden"></span>Thu, 13 Mar 2014 15:56:00 +0000Tess Nacelewicz17321 at http://securitysystemsnews.comhttp://securitysystemsnews.com/also-noted/vivint-wins-recognition-its-customer-service#commentsVivint reveals key to successhttp://securitysystemsnews.com/blog/vivint-reveals-key-success
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<div class="field-item even" property="schema:author dc:creator">Tess Nacelewicz</div>
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<div class="field-item even" property="schema:datePublished dc:created"><span class="date-display-single" property="schema:datePublished dc:created" datatype="xsd:dateTime" content="2012-10-05T00:00:00-04:00">10/05/2012</span></div>
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<div class="field-item even" property="schema:articleBody content:encoded"> <p>As we all know by know, Vivint has worked out a deal <a href="http://www.securitysystemsnews.com/article/vivint-be-sold-blackstone-2-billion-deal" target="_blank">to be sold</a> by the end of this year to the Blackstone Group for the whopping amount of more than $2 billion.</p>
<p>If you’re wondering what its secret is, the 13-year-old Provo, Utah-based home automation/home security provider offered an answer in a recent press release this week, during National Customer Service Week. It said its key to success is excellent service to its more than 675,000 customers throughout the United States and Canada.</p>
<p>Here’s some of what Vivint had to say:<br /> </p>
<blockquote><p>"Customer service professionals answer calls, tackle problems, manage teams, and are the frontline responders in making someone's day a little easier," said Steve Dixon, Vivint's vice president of operations. "You can have world-class products and attractive pricing, but if you don't back that up with professional, friendly and effective customer service you won't succeed."</p>
<p>Tina Brewer, of Fredericton, New Brunswick, recalls a personal experience when Vivint's customer service representatives offered timely and effective advice.</p>
<p>"I came home from work and attempted to enter my passcode," Brewer said. "I received a message that it was an invalid code and attempted to re-enter the code. However, when I started to do so, a loud alarm sounded. I was startled and unsure what to do. The voice of Vivint's support staff came on the speaker and walked me through the necessary steps to stop the alarm."</p>
<p>Brewer was also connected to Vivint's technical support team who taught her how to properly use her keyless entry. "Vivint's support staff was so kind and so helpful. I was completely overwhelmed," Brewer added. "They were helpful and supportive. I know that if I were in an unsafe situation, having their support would come as a great comfort."</p>
<p>Vivint has won numerous awards for its customer service. It was honored as the gold winner of "Customer Service Department of the Year" at the 2012 American Business Awards, a top annual business recognition program. Vivint also earned gold medal honors from Contact Center World. In addition, Vivint received top honors from the Central Station Alarm Association for its exceptional service to customers and community.</p>
<p>At Vivint, outstanding customer service extends beyond the initial sign-up of a customer. Damien Seabrook, of North Charleston, N.C., was surprised at the fast and friendly manner of Vivint's installation technicians, who arrived at his home in less than 15 minutes after he verified his account.</p>
<p>"I was blown away by the quick response and have never had that happen in my life," Seabrook said. "Once the technician verified what package I was getting he got right to work. In 45 minutes I had a new system and he even took the time to show me how to work everything. The great part about it is he even downloaded the app to my phone."</p></blockquote>
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<span property="dc:title" content="Vivint reveals key to success" class="rdf-meta element-hidden"></span>Fri, 05 Oct 2012 21:02:16 +0000Tess Nacelewicz15723 at http://securitysystemsnews.comhttp://securitysystemsnews.com/blog/vivint-reveals-key-success#comments